The California proposed “bullet train” project is slowly but surely transforming itself into something reminiscent of the “Keystone Kops” farce. The Los Angeles Times reports a whole new batch of problems. Ralph Vartabedian and Dan Weikel California Bullet Train Groundbreaking Faces New Obstacles, April 29, 2013. Click here.
What’s wrong this time? Take look:
“[L]ast week, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co., which operates a freight line that follows some of the 130-mile initial route in the Central Valley, warned in a blunt letter that no deal has been reached to build on or near its existing track. The company also signaled that it may not be willing to accept the project as proposed, in part because the exact route of the line is still unclear.
BNSF had been seen as one of the more accommodating organizations to the project. But the letter, addressed to the rail authority’s main consultant, Parsons Brinckerhoff, and copied to the rail authority, asserts that the rail agency’s planning process has “a great deal of ambiguity and contradictions.” The agency is sending mixed messages to different government agencies about what the construction entails, and it’s not clear who has the authority to speak and negotiate for the state, the railroad claimed.”
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“[T]he issues in the letter parallel those raised by Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Atwater), chairman of the House rail subcommittee, who said he will conduct a hearing on the project May 28.
“We want to know what routes they are choosing and the timeline on the project,” he said.
Seems to us like this is one hell of a time to start deciding what routes will be followed. But hey man, it’s the government in action.
And oh, yes. The L.A. Times article includes a color picture of our Governor boarding a bullet train. In Beijing. Further your affiant sayeth naught.